US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD3415

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003415 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/2025 
TAGS: IZ, PGOV, PHUM, Parliament, Sunni Arab, Kurdish Alliance 
SUBJECT: AUGUST 18 LATE NIGHT UPDATE ON CONSTITUTIONAL 
PROCESS 
 
REF: A) BAGHDAD 3410 B) BAGHDAD 3414 
 
Classified By: Pol Couns Robert Ford, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1. (C) At around 23:00 August 18, following a full day of 
meetings with key Iraqi constituencies, the Ambassador 
concluded his evening meeting with Kurdish and Sunni leaders. 
 After receiving the Shi,a counterproposal noted in ref B 
and discussing it with this group, final compromise appears 
near on the issues of federal/regional authorities, Kirkuk, 
the Constitutional Court, and the removal of a reference to 
Iraq as a &single unit.8  Kurdish members of this group, 
however ) most notably Masud Barzani ) reacted very 
negatively to a late-arriving Shi,a counterproposal on 
natural resources, which appears to differ only very little 
from their original proposal of national ownership and 
control over revenues. 
 
2. (C) August 19 at 10:00, the Ambassador will convene a 
meeting of the senior Iraqi leadership to march through the 
text and attempt to settle the remaining issues.  The major 
outstanding issue between Kurds and Arabs is the treatment of 
Iraq,s natural resources.  Sunni members of the Constitution 
Committee have not yet reached an agreement with the Shi,a 
on how to approach the creation of new federal regions; this 
will also be another major issue at dispute.  Our goal will 
be to hammer out a final deal on the text by the end of 
August 19. 
Khalilzad